Hidden Past
by Stearl
Summary: He returned after finally escaping from that place. Starting back at square one, his home island, he aims for his lifelong childhood dream again - to become the Pirate King. Alternate Timeline - Luffy with a different past after the Sabo incident Currently on hiatus due to exams T T will update in December
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

_-2 Years Ago-_

A boy, about the age of 15, covered in blood and gashes, limped towards a small village located at the edge of the island. It was night time so hardly anyone was out. Light from windows and beneath doors filtered out onto the main pathway. There were no lamp posts lighting the dark streets, so even if someone came out of the comfort of their homes for some reason or another, they wouldn't be able to tell the severity of the wounds on the boy.

He finally got into the village – it had been a long journey to come back to this place. With little knowledge of navigating, it had taken a whole year to return to the place he called home. Nostalgia filled him as he looked around the village and smiled. Nothing had changed over the time he had been gone.

The boy slouched against the walls of the wooden houses lining the road. He had to go to _that _place before his strength let up. He had to let at least her know that he was healthy and alive…well as 'healthy' can be while injured to the point of being half dead. He dragged himself, blood trickling down his shaking legs, dripping onto the ground, leaving behind a trail of blood on the dirt road.

* * *

She had closed the bar about an hour ago, the few customers she had had left at closing time. She was really grateful for that. Sometimes voyagers or even pirates came and drank at her bar but wouldn't cooperate with her trading hours and she had trouble dealing with such customers.

Speaking of pirates, she remembered the one pirate crew she met who was an exception to the definition "rude, ruthless, rowdy plunderers". Well they were rowdy, but they were all well-mannered, nice people who liked to have parties almost every single day. And with them would be a little boy from this village, claiming he could swim, begging the pirate captain to take him on one of their voyages.

She faintly smiled at the memory. It was one of the best times she had had while living in this village. When the pirates had to leave after a year of having this village as a 'base', the young boy had cried his eyes out. The pirate captain had entrusted his hat to the boy, which had made him cry even harder. The boy who had overflowing energy and a self-delivered scar under his left eye to 'prove his bravery'. The boy whose name was M-

A sudden knock on the door startled the bar owner out of her thoughts. "Sorry but we are closed now," she yelled in the direction of the door. She heard a few more knocks and then a thump.

Silence.

Now the bar owner was worried. Had that been the thump of a body? She didn't believe it but decided to check it out anyway. She walked slowly towards the door, and upon reaching it, opened it. The door opened inwards and something leaning on the door fell slightly, regained its balance and looked at her.

"M…Ma…k…i….no."

Her eyes widened, hand shooting up to cover her mouth. It had been long, but it was definitely him. How long exactly had it been since she last saw him?! She had thought he was never going to come back to here, what with how he had been taken off the island and all.

The figure in the doorway smiled weakly. Then his eyes rolled to the back of his head and he collapsed.

She finally got her voice back.

"LUFFY!"


	2. Chapter 1 - Setting Out

**Thank you to the people who read, favourited, followed and/or reviewed this story!**

**I'll be giving a heads up at the start of the chapter when there will be OCs (it won't be OC free unfortunately). They'll just be minors and won't be too impacting _(I think...)_.**

**Anyway, there won't be any OCs in this chapter.**

**On with the story!**

* * *

**Chapter 1 - Setting Out**

_-Present Time-_

"Aaaaahhh~! That was a yummy meal!" Luffy got up and slung his backpack onto his shoulder. "Thanks Makino!"

The woman turned and smiled at him. "You're welcome here anytime, Luffy." She finished drying the washed dishes then came out from behind the counter. "Are you really going to leave today?"

"Yup!" Luffy answered excitedly as he headed for the door.

"I don't think I'll get used to not seeing you around anymore." Makino followed Luffy out of her bar.

The boy laughed then said "Don't worry. I'll be back one day. And when I do I promise I'll pay all of my tab off!"

"Ok then Luffy, I'll be waiting." She had that look she had whenever he said that, as if she didn't mind if he didn't pay his tab off. But he will when he comes back with a lot of money.

The two walked to the docks and saw most of the villagers waiting for them.

"Eh? Everyone's here to see me off?" Luffy asked, directing the question at no one in particular.

The mayor, upon noticing them, immediately started to growl and say things along the lines of 'Pirating is bad and reckless and dangerous and will make this village look bad' etc however he was held back by two of the village's men who had proud looks on their faces, happy for the boy the village had come to love and care for.

Luffy got into a dinghy that looked to fit only one or two people and placed his backpack underneath the plank on where he sat.

"Are you sure you'll be ok in that small dinghy, Luffy? You can take one of my boats if you want." Gyoru, the fishmonger, asked as one of the other villagers handed Luffy a barrel full of food - his eyes sparkled and mouth drooled at that.

"Thanks for offering but I'll be fine. It's not like I know how to run a boat properly anyway."

"Haha true that. Still, what if a storm comes or something and you capsize? It'll be harder to fall overboard on a wider boat."_  
_

"I'll figure something out so it'll be fine." Luffy gave his signature toothy grin and laughed.

With that the straw hat boy was ready to set sail. Luffy turned around and faced all the people out there to see him off.

"Thanks for taking care of me while I was here! I'll be back someday!"

Some of the villagers had tears in their eyes as they all said goodbye. Mayor Woop Slap had given up trying to persuade the boy to stay - the villagers had blocked him from even trying. They, even the mayor, knew Luffy's dream. The kid had been going on about it since he was little after all. There was just no stopping that reckless teen from aiming for his goal.

The dinghy drifted out quite a bit when Luffy noticed something, or rather someone, and suddenly called out.

"Oh! Dogra! Can you tell Dadan I still hate mountain bandits?! But you guys are an exception! Thanks for taking care of me!"

* * *

_"Oh! Dogra!"_

When the two bandits, hidden as to not be seen by the villagers, heard Luffy shouting out one of their names, the bigger one with long, curly, orange hair bumped the shorter one's head.

"Ow!"

"You idiot! He saw you!" the bigger one whispered at the other.

"I was just trying to see him...I'm pretty sure he didn't see me..." said Dogra.

"Well he did! Now the villagers are gonna know we're here!"

_"Can you tell Dadan I still hate mountain bandits?!"_

A vein popped out on Dadan's temple. "That little..."

_"But you guys are an exception!"_

"...wait, what?"

_"Thanks for taking care of me!"_

Hearing that, the bandit leader let out a few tears.

"Huh? What's this? Why am I crying? I'm not crying!" Dadan tried to persuade herself.

"I'm not crying either!" So did Dogra.

The two couldn't stop their tears from falling and continued to cry as they started to head back to their hideout in the mountains.

* * *

"Makino. That was the name of the mountain bandit wasn't it?" asked the mayor.

"Yes it was." the bar owner replied.

"He came to see Luffy off then." Woop Slap stated.

"I suppose so." Makino agreed then continued "He isn't the only one there, though."

"What? There are more?"

"The one I think called Dadan is here too."

"WHAT?" and with that the mayor panicked for a bit, then calmed himself down. It was rare that mountain bandit leaders came down to the village. Well it used to be quite often because of that bastard Higuma but the Red Hair Pirates took care of him and his lackeys. And the catalyst for that event had been the boy who had just set off for the sake of his dream, inspired by the aforementioned pirate crew's captain.

Woop Slap had to remind himself that this certain bandit group were people who Garp trusted...through blackmailing, but trusted nonetheless. He remembered the last time he saw them, he and the other villagers had fiercely tried to protect the village, but it had been a wasted effort.

* * *

_"Outta the way!"_

_Shouts got louder as Woop Slap, Makino and a couple of other women surrounded the injured and bleeding boy on the ground. The women had slowed the bleeding down and were taking care of the bandaging._

_The village men had been ready for the oncoming force but were overwhelmed by the strength the force had and were blown away like leaves in the wind._

_A horde of people were charging straight towards where the mayor was. Woop Slap saw the leader of the group and narrowed his eyes. They had been quiet in the mountains for a long time so why were they suddenly storming into Foosha Village? Had they been planning this all along? And why did it have to be tonight, when **he** was finally back? Even though he knew he was weak compared to the other village men, he wouldn't let them take over the village he was the mayor of, the village he loved._

_He braced himself for the hit that was sure to come, yet it didn't. He opened his eyes (when had he closed them?) and saw the bandits who had stopped their charge and were now panting in front of him._

_Mustering up his courage, he said "What are you here for, Curly Dadan?"_

_The answer he got had surprised and at the same time confused him._

_"Let me see him."_

_"Who?" he asked automatically._

_He saw her take a deep breath. "Let me see Luffy."_

_How did the bandit leader know Luffy? Garp had taken him away a few weeks after the Red Hair Pirates left. "How do you know him?"_

_"It's not important."_

_The two stared each other down, neither looking like they would back off anytime soon. But then he saw it. The longing. In her eyes. And in each of the other bandits' eyes. It didn't look like they were here to harm anyone (although they did push the villagers out into the side of the street)._

_Makino seemed to have noticed it too as she spoke up from where she was. "It wouldn't hurt to let them see Luffy, mayor."_

_He thought it through. And thought it through a second time. On one hand, they were bandits and the village didn't have a good history with bandits. On the other hand they had asked like civilians. But they had done a number on the village people. But the villagers wouldn't have let the bandits in at any cost. But they **were **bandits.__ But Garp trusted this lot. _But they were bandits. _But they looked like they desperately wanted to see the boy, was that maybe a smidgen of protectiveness he could see in their eyes?_

___In the end the last reasoning won out and he decided to let the bandits get close to Luffy, but not before warning them that if they tried anything suspicious the remaining villagers and he would do everything in their power to keep them away from the injured boy._

___The bandit leader agreed with the terms and the women who had been blocking Luffy from their view moved to the side so the bandits could see._

___Woop Slap studied the reactions of the bandits. As soon as they could see the boy, they all wore the same expression - shock._

___Luffy was in critical condition. He had 5 large gashes across his chest and back combined, a broken arm (How on earth could that have happened? The boy is rubber for goodness sake! Then again he wasn't as stretchy as he was when he was younger...), and minor cuts and bruises littered all over his body._

___Of course, since every injury had been bandaged, the bandits wouldn't have known what injuries Luffy had. However the blood that had seeped through the bandages and pooled on the ground indicated how serious the injuries were._

___The leader, Curly Dadan, walked up to Luffy. The rest of the bandits stayed back._

___"What happened?"_

___The women shook their heads at the question. They didn't know. Hell if anyone knew. They had found the boy in this state 7 years after they finally seeing him again, in their own village._

___The mayor saw the way the bandit leader took everything in. From the tip of Luffy's head to the end of his toe. And she definitely didn't miss the thing on the boy's abdomen._

___"This, isn't this...? What's it doing on him?"_

___Again, the villagers had no answer to the question. Everyone was baffled when they had found it. It was on the lower right side and was about the size of the palm of a hand. Adding to that, it had three scars overlapping a mark. As if trying to get rid of it. The mark was still slightly visible under the scars which had led Woop Slap to think it was ____probably branded, not tattooed. The scars seemed to have been self-inflicted, which when looking carefully at the mark would tell you why Luffy would've tried to get rid of it._

* * *

It was a mark that clashed with the boy's dream, his goal. A mark that would indefinitely hinder him from achieving his goal, or anything public country-wide for that matter.

They hadn't been able to get rid of the mark for Luffy. They just didn't have the technology. Perhaps a place with sufficient technology could get rid it, but for now the mark was still on him. To this day, Woop Slap still hadn't figured out why on earth the boy even had that mark in the first place. No one in the village did.

Anyway, as long as the bandits didn't cause any trouble, he wouldn't go after them. They had been as worried as he and the villagers were when they saw Luffy, and had later been his 'caregivers' when Luffy had fully healed from his injuries.

Now, Luffy's final visit to the village from the mountains was today. He wouldn't be back anytime soon. Of course Curly Dadan would come to see him off. She had looked after him, after all.

As he watched the boy get smaller and smaller, his last wish was that the village wouldn't get a bad reputation because of him and Ace.

* * *

Luffy lied down in the dinghy, hands behind his head. He looked up at the sky and grinned. He had finally left the island for his dream and kept his promise with Ace - to leave when they turned 17. He had missed Ace leaving the island, but Makino had told him that his brother had left a year before Luffy came back.

He knew Ace had left the island since he had been keeping tabs on him. Which was why he left _that place_ when Ace left, so everything could work out fine. Ace would be able to protect himself and the village wouldn't become a war zone.

Just then, with a roar the Lord of the Coast emerged from the depths of the sea. Luffy sat up and blinked at the creature.

"You're still here?"

Upon noticing him, the Lord of the Coast immediately started to sweat bullets and slowly backed away, back into the safety of the ocean.

Luffy sighed. He had expected a challenge from the monster, not a retreat. He had hoped the monster would've gotten stronger since the time he returned. He had given the creature a good hard punch to the face when it blocked his way into the village, and now it was cowering from him.

"Oh well." said Luffy as he lied back down. "I guess I'll wait for something interesting to happen."

* * *

_-A few days later-_

* * *

"Aaaahhhhhh~! So hungry~! ...hmm? What's that?" Luffy had eaten all the food he got on the day he set sail. Now there was a whirlpool in range and he was getting pulled closer and closer to it.

"A whirlpool! It looks fun! But the boat's gonna get smashed..." He put on a thinking pose and a few seconds later exclaimed "I know! I'll get into the food barrel!"

And with that he got into the barrel and fell asleep.

* * *

**A/N: Everyone knows what happened when Luffy did this, right? Right? Hopefully you do since it's at the start of the whole One Piece series. Please tell me you do...**

******With this story I decided to vaguely follow the canon storyline - basically the islands Luffy and his crew go to will be the same as canon, but what happens on the islands may be different. I said 'may' because I don't think arcs like the Syrup Village Arc should be changed since it's when Luffy meets Usopp _(and I don't think I can think up something original for how the two meet what with Kaya and Merry giving a ship to them and all)_.**

**I won't be retelling what we already know from the One Piece World unless I think it's important _(or unless I forget to cut it out)_ so it'll be little recaps like the last bit just so we're on track. And if something else _(an original plot)_ happens then you know when in the storyline it happens.**

**So there you have it! My plan _(sort of)_ for this story so you know _(sort of)_ where it's going!**

**Again, thanks for reading!**


End file.
